Due to significant medical advances, the average human lifespan has been considerably extended. Consequently, there is a growing population of elderly people in our society today. The elderly, on average, spend more daytime hours sitting than younger people and often for extended periods of time. As well, a significant portion of the aging elderly are ultimately Institutionalized wherein residents of health care institutions, for a variety of health reasons, spend a large portion of their waking hours sitting.
Because of increasing numbers of people who are sitting for long and uninterrupted periods of time, there is a need to provide chairs which comfortably accommodate these people. Further, people may have peculiar sitting positions which are comfortable to them. Consequently, there is a need for chairs which accommodate a variety of sitting positions.
Current chair designs contain footrests to support the sitter's legs and feet. These footrests are generally comprised of two members, a log rest and a footplate. The leg rest is coupled to the chair seat and extends downwards below the chair seat for supporting both the sitters lower legs. Both of the sitter's feet are supported by a footplate coupled to the lower end of the leg support frame. To facilitate ease of access to the chair, coupling of the footplate to the leg rest is pivotable. By virtue of this pivotable coupling, the footplate can be swung upwards and out of the way of a person attempting to access the chair for sitting purposes. Once a person is seated in the chair, the foot plate may be swung back to its original position to support the sitter's feet. However, in order to flip the toot plate back to its original position, the siting single foot plate. This causes discomfort to the person sitting in the chair, increases work for the caregiver, and poses a safety hazard to the caregiver. Accordingly, there is a need for a foot rest which eliminates the necessity of lifting the sitter's feet when flipping down a single foot plate.
Footrests are also provided which are dedicated for supporting a single leg of a person sitting in a health care chair. In this respect, the leg rest and foot plate combination are adapted for supporting one leg and one foot respectively. Accordingly, to support both the sitter's legs, two such leg rest and foot plate combinations are required. Such designs, although addressing the above-described chair access problem, are not suitable for certain kinds of patients because of the fact that a region of free space exists between the leg rests. In particular, such designs are dangerous for patients who are unable to keep their legs stationary, such as those experiencing Huntington's disease or dementia, because of the possibility that their legs may become lodged within the space between the two leg rests.
It is also desirable to provide a footrest, adapted for use with a chair, including a footplate which is capable of assuming various fixed positions of tilt. People with certain medical conditions feel discomfort if required to maintain a sitting position wherein the soles of their feet rest in a plane which is substantially parallel with their buttocks. Footrests which fail to accommodate various orientations of a peron's feet when supporting these feet only contribute to discomfort and aggravate such person's general well being.